Published Articles

At the time of writing, on-farm RWO assessments have been part of the Red Tractor assurance scheme requirements for about two months. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the subject prior to implementation, so how has the dust settled now the plans are being put into action? Paul Pemberton of Garth Partnership relates some early experiences

Porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED) isn’t a new disease. It’s caused by a coronavirus that was first described in the UK in 1971. Since then, the disease has been seen intermittently, but in recent years outbreaks have become rare, writes Louise Blenkhorn, vet at Garth Pig Practice, specialists in pig medicine.

Influenza viruses in pigs, or “flu” for short, have probably been the subject of more public interest than any other swine disease in recent times. In truth, however, it is one particular strain of virus that has grabbed the attention due to its emergence in Mexico in 2009 and subsequent spread around the world. It became dubbed “Swine Flu” by the World’s media, which gave the pig industry some rather toxic PR for a while, even though the majority of cases in pigs were thought to have been transmitted to our porcine friends from sickly humans. In contrast to the severe effect on some people, the virus seemed to pass through most pig farms almost un-noticed.

There are new legal requirements for all pig buildings coming into force from 1st January 2013. The regulations are given in metric measurements, but for some of the figures below we have given approximate imperial conversions.

Pleurisy in pigs is a topical issue, largely due to the possiblity of financial penalties being imposed by processors. John Richardson and Paul Pemberton of Garth Partnership explore the issues and costs.